This Song Will Save Your Life

By Leila Sales

Elise’s latest big project is to become popular and have friends next school year. Her projects are always big, in-depth and successful. This one fails. On fact, it fails so badly that she decides to try suicide but that fails also. It does point out that she does want to live. On one of her late night walks she discovers an underground dance club which opens up a whole new world, where she begins to understand what it means to be a friend and where she becomes the hottest new DJ. Meanwhile, on the school scene, someone is writes a blog in her name about wanting to commit suicide and she starts hanging around with the two other most unpopular girls.

 ~ Sue

Dark Justice

By Brandilyn Collins

This is the first book I have read by this author and I really liked it.

Hanna Shire and her senile mother decide to take the scenic route as they return from a get away weekend. They come across a car accident and stop to help, like many people would. Soon their world starts to spin out of control.

The victim of the accident whispers mysterious words to Hannah. Now someone wants her and her mother out of the picture because of what they “know”. Hannah’s daughter becomes involved too and they begin to understand that the whole country’s electrical grid is at risk. Now they have to figure out who they can trust and who can stop this terrorist attack?

~ Dixie

Dream Thieves

By Maggie Steifvater

In this sequel to The Raven Boys , the search for the legendary Welsh king Glendower is overpowered by the weakening of the ley lines(invisible channels of energy that connect sacred places of the world) that underlie their small town in Virginia, and the disappearance of Cabeswater, the mystical forest. Ronan’s ability to pull things into this world from his dreams is out of control. He discovers that the school bully shares this ability and can teach him how to control it and bring back exactly what he wants. The Grey Man and others are searching for an object called the Greywaren which allows the owner to steal from dreams, unaware the Ronan is it. 

~ Sue

The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic

By Emily Croy Barker

Nora Fischer is definitely having a bad week.  She is struggling with the final pieces of her dissertation; her boyfriend of four years has just announced that he is marrying another woman; and, to top it off, she has just spent a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding in the mountains.  In an attempt to shake she wanders up the mountain  for an early morning walk, gets lost, and walks through  a portal into another world.  Nora is transformed from an average looking grad student into a stunning beauty with fabulous new friends and is married to a handsome prince.  Or is she? 

When the elegant veneer shatters, her magical world becomes a dark and dangerous place.  Saved from a horrifying fate by a reluctant, mysterious magician with a troubling past, Nora must learn “real magic” to survive.

I loved this story, and the writing flows beautifully from the first few pages.  This unreal world feels very real, and is populated by such deeply imagined characters that I stayed up for several nights reading.  I can’t wait for the sequel, which is in process.

~ Sally

This Town : two parties and a funeral-plus plenty of parking!-in America's Gilded Capital

by Mark Leibovich

"This Town" is a political narrative about life in Washington D.C.  Mark Leibovich is the Chief National Correspondent for New York Times Magazine.   He is in some ways an insider and his insights about the state of national politics can be blistering.

The book begins with the funeral of Tim Russert and ends 4 years later with Obama winning a second term of office.   He recounts the events along the way including many parties and the colorful characters that are part of the political machine.  The transition of politicians becoming lobbyists is eye-opening and disturbing.  This book is a must read for anyone interested in national politics.

-Holly

Somebody Up There Hates You

By Hollis Seamon - YA

 

Ritchie may be in the hospice ward dying of cancer but he is still a teenager and determined to make his final days memorable.  He is aided and abetted by his ‘crazy’ uncle and Sylvie, the only other teen in the ward, who does not want to die a virgin and accompanies him on one of his escapes. This story, told by Ritchie, made me both laugh and cry.

 

~ Sue